RandomChatter (show)
__FORCETOC__ About the Show As the flagship show of the RandomChatter Podcast Network, RandomChatter is a discussion show covering a variety of topics in the entertainment industry. It focuses primarily on movies and television (especially science fiction), but it also branches off into books, music, technology and other topics. Unlike most other shows on the network, RandomChatter doesn't have a rigid show format. It's a free-form discussion show. Sometimes there's a pre-planned topic, and sometimes the hosts wander from topic to topic as the conversations guide them. Erik Blythe is the primary anchor for the show, and he's joined each week by Lou Secki. Schedule-permitting, Chris McGuffin (of the Echo Base podcast) joins them. The show is normally about an hour long. It's recorded each Thursday night, right after The Outer Rim (the network's news show). Shows are usually released on Mondays, though our Patreon donors can usually get the show as early as Friday. The Thursday night recordings are normally broadcast live via Ustream, and the audience can listen live and participate in a live chat at http://randomchatter.com/live. History RandomChatter originally started as a blog, not as a podcast. In 2005, Erik discovered that Ron Moore, creator of the recent Battlestar Galactica Syfy series, was releasing audio commentaries online as something called a "podcast." A few weeks later, Erik started a podcast for RandomChatter. It sucked. The website was a pet project without a large audience. Being a huge Star Wars fan, Erik contacted one of his favorite webistes, TheForce.net, and asked if they'd be interested in having a podcast. History was made, and Erik started the Podcast for TheForce.net (naming things is not his forte). Sadly, this meant the recently-started RandomChatter podcast was put on a back burner. Later in 2005, Erik realized that the Star Wars podcast, while very successful, was also overwhelming. At that point in time, things like Skype didn't exist, so he couldn't enlist any long-distance help with the show, and he didn't have any local options. Erik stepped down from what would eventually become The ForceCast and returned to RandomChatter. The show went through several changes. At first, it covered movie news. Then it became primarily movie reviews. At one point, it changed its name to Movie Survival Guide, and later it was mostly replaced by MovieChatter. It also went on hiatus a few times due to Erik's various work commitments. At the beginning of 2013, shortly after the announcement that Lucasfilm had been bought by Disney and that Star Wars would be returning to the big screen, Erik returned to what was then The ForceCast to replace its former hosts who had moved on to create their own podcast network. Shortly thereafter, in order to put his full attention into the ForceCast Network, he put the RandomChatter show on hiatus again (though the network was kept active thanks to Jay Shepard and his various shows). In early March, 2016, Erik told his bosses at the ForceCast Network that he needed to take an indefinite hiatus (they pulled the plug on the network about a week later). He returned to his own network and rebooted the RandomChatter show. He started with Episode 100, though the numbering is misleading. RandomChatter had produced far more than one hundred episodes over the prior decade. However, early episodes were labeled by date, not by number. And when RandomChatter started using a numbering system, it was eventually rebooted. Even Erik himself isn't sure exactly how many episodes have been produced. For the sake of clarity, RandomChatter resumed where it left off before its prior hiatus, which had left off at 99. Episodes 2016 Episodes